Help Taylor be with Precious Baby Jericho in the NICU

Hi, I'm Lisa Blakeley but I'm known to my grandchildren as YaYa. We had an unexpected surprise on March 22, 2025 as Jericho James Harris made his entry into our world at 24 weeks utero...He is my daughter Taylor and son in law Jeremy's baby. Here's what went down...

I got a phone call at 8 am that Saturday from Taylor, as soon as I saw it was her I knew something was wrong because she would never be up on a Saturday after working all week. She asked if I could come get her and take her to the hospital as she thought she was in labor. I asked why Jeremy wasn't taking her and she said they really needed him to work because they are behind the 8 ball with the surprise pregnancy. I jumped up, splashed my face, brushed my teeth and hair and headed out. I got there in minutes, maybe I was going a little fast, and off we went. We were 40 minutes to the hospital so I was trying to distract Taylor from the pain when I noticed she was doing something with her phone, I finally asked and she said she was timing the contractions and they were 2 min apart. As I totally freaked out inside my body, I drove just a tad faster as we were still 20 minutes away. We finally arrived and they were waiting for her at Labor and Delivery. By the time I got to her room she was gowned and the doctor was there and she asked when the contractions stopped. For some reason they did stop but only for about 10 minutes and then boom, it was full on contractions. The doctor decided to do a full exam and Taylor was asking if she was going to get a shot to stop the labor, the doctor said NO then said, I will never forget this, "You are dilated to a 10 and this baby is coming, call her husband!" Taylor burst into tears, I called Jeremy and he was on his way. You know God gives you little bonus moments throughout life, and he gave Taylor one because her labor completely stopped, like totally. Jeremy walked in 25 minutes later and just as he was walking over to Taylor, yep, the contractions started back up, God had given Jeremy just enough time to get there before his boy was to be born. The doctor called in the Nicu Team and the Delivery Nurses and she told Taylor to push...The funniest thing happened, Taylor's water broke and because the baby was so small it caused the water to shoot out straight and it covered the doctor, I mean like from her face to her toes and I could not stop laughing. It really was funny and there were others laughing too! The water breaking caused Taylor to de-dilate to an 8 so the staff all left and Taylor was able to rest for about 15 minutes then I saw the head delivery nurse pick up the phone and all the sudden the doors opened and the entire entourage was back in place and the doctor said "so you just had a pretty good contraction" and Taylor nodded. She checked Taylor and said PUSH! Literally the words no more had come out of her mouth when little Jericho James made his triumphant entry at 11:54 a.m. weighing in at 2 lb 1 oz and 13.7 inches long. I saw the whole thing and it was like a little itty bitty baby doll had popped out. I have never seen a baby that small before but he had 10 fingers and 10 toes, Praise the Lord! The Nicu had already scooped him up and started to work on him because he needed to get his airway cleared and they had to work on his breathing while cleaning him all up. This little fireball was kicking and they were trying to keep him still because what I learned was at that age, the baby's skin is like tissue paper and just a big kick could tear it. We were happy that he was ok and we were terrified at how small he was. How do you take care of a baby that small and I knew he would be in Nicu for a while but the event itself was mind blowing, scary and a blessing all at the same time. The Nicu nurse came in and there was a lot of conversation but the three things I remember most:

*Mom we need you here as much as you can humanly be

*You need to plan on him being here between 2 and 3 months most likely 3

*We are all a Team and you need to know there will be ups and downs but everything is going to be okay

It's been a week and she was right, we have had a lot of ups and we just had our first down, as little JJ has blood on his brain. That was a lot to take in, what does that mean, none of us knew but the Nicu doctor was great about explaining that at this point and at his young age and size these things can happen and they can go away as fast as they came, we just have to let time be our friend and know that God has little JJ in the palm of his hand.

We did find out why our little Jericho came early, the placenta had somehow gotten strep in it and that would have been fatal so we choose to believe the God saved little JJ by forcing the labor to get him out! Our family believes in the Lord Jesus and we do believe in the power of prayer and we have hundreds of prayers coming our way and that is such a blessing but Taylor, Jeremy and Little Jericho James need help. Taylor needs to be with JJ and I was crying to one of my friends and then posted on FB and two different friends suggested that we create a GoFundMe page because Taylor is not going to be able to work from home as workplace will not allow it and she can't just stop working because they can't survive without her income. So, instead of her being with her baby most of the day, she works for 6 hours then heads to the hospital for 2-3 hours then home to her family. We are a loving family but not one of wealth, we all do okay but we just can't make up for her salary. It is heartbreaking to see your child be stretched so thin and have to go to work when all she wants to do is be at the hospital with her precious little baby and he needs her there too. Our family needs your help; Taylor and Jeremy have been through so much and yet there is so much more that will come their way as sweet Jericho James continues to grow into his full term body. We don't have a clue what to expect but we are praying for a positive outcome for our little one. We are grateful for anything you can do, even if it is just prayers because the more prayers the better. Thank you for taking the time to hear our story...